VINYL STATIC

SINGLES ONLY: A chat is
long overdue concerning Nelly Furtado’s feverish new single “Promiscuous.”
Remember Nelly? She unleashed the ballad “I’m Like a
Bird” from the successful album Whoa,
Nelly in 2000. It wasn’t a club hit, but
plenty of waiting-room occupants bobbed their heads to it on the way to
root canals. The Canadian songstress has strong pipes, and somewhere along
the way she luckily eluded the kiss-of-death “pop princess”
moniker, instead floating off into adult-alternative territory and landing
in a spot somewhere near the niche occupied by Sheryl Crow. Millions of records
were sold, and in 2003 Furtado released a mellow folk pop album titled Folklore. But the truth is,
she’s been dipping her toe in the hip-hop pool for a while now: as a
guest on the Roots’ Phrenology, on Jurassic 5’s Power in Numbers, and a spot on Ms. Jade’s Timbaland-backed hit “Ching Ching.” Saying that
it’s surprising to hear Furtado in a hip-hop club jam shows that you
haven’t been listening, but if you’re surprised to hear Furtado
rapping, well,
you’re not alone. “Promiscuous,” the lead single from
Furtado’s third album, Loose, which slated for release on Tuesday, is good;
three-fourths of the credit goes to Timbaland’s presence and the other fourth to Furtado. The duo
battle back in forth in this flirty cat-and-mouse game, backed by
Timbaland’s signature pulsing kick drum and a simple synthesizer
arrangement. Furtado’s rapping is probably the least interesting part
of the single. She seems to take cues from the sometimes-talking,
sometimes-cooing style of Gwen Stefani. The fun song is a welcome detour for the talented
Furtado. The best thing about “Promiscuous”? Its playful
innocence. It’s not often on today’s mainstream hip-hop
landscape that women get to talk back to male advances. In the end of this
scenario, the listener is left not really knowing whether Timbaland will
get a chance with Nelly, but one thing is for sure: She’s calling the
shots. CHAPPELLE SHOW: Remember
when the Fugees
reunited, and that time Erykah Badu and Common shared the stage? Have you ordered your copy of Dave Chappelle’s Block Party? The unrated version features extended musical acts, a
featurette about the making of the film, and some other worthy bonuses. The
DVD dropped on June 13, and a copy is scheduled to arrive at Vinyl Static
headquarters in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . .